Strengthening Whistleblower Protections, Enforcement and Accountability in Public Administration: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-26
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Paul Nicholas Gogarty (IND), Dublin Mid-West

I am not totally sold on the suggestion of a whistleblower reward scheme. I note it has worked to an extent in the United States, albeit under a different system and mindset from our own. We should certainly look at best practice and, in this context, I do not have a problem with a pilot and neither should the Government. We need to make investigations mandatory, punish obstruction and publish it, protect jobs for conscientious employees and provide real support. This will better help the decent people who shine a light on wrongdoing and ensure whistleblowers are treated as friends of the public interest and not, as is all too often the case, as enemies of the State. If we are serious about integrity in public life, we must be serious about protecting whistleblowers.
I do not know if the reforms proposed will move Ireland from a culture of bureaucratic omertà to one of accountability overnight but they are worthy of scrutiny and are not to be dismissed out of hand, as they have been. I support the proposals. I hope the Government will reflect on what has been said today and examine every angle closely, either when further Private Members' legislation comes forward or possibly through the Government tabling amendments, as has been suggested, to the existing legislation.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:22+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-26